


No Such Thing as Genius

by Tecc



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Kageyama-centric, Pre-Series, kageyama fails at being a team player
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 17:05:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2076057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tecc/pseuds/Tecc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kageyama didn't understand his teammates. It was like they wanted to be bad at volleyball.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Such Thing as Genius

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little piece speculating on Kageyama's thoughts and feelings in middle school leading up to the start of the series that I wrote a while back. Nothing particularly interesting.

Kageyama was never really able to understand people. For him, the one truth in life was that volleyball was everything and always would be. Everything else came up second if it came up at all. 

In elementary school Kageyama planned out his whole career path—junior high championships, senior high championships, professional player, Olympics. The paper still hung on the wall over his desk and, while he may have strayed a little from the initial course somewhere in the middle, he still planned to stick with it. Kageyama lived and breathed volleyball, filled every waking second he physically could without injury with volleyball. It was his life, plain and simple. 

Which was why, come middle school, he just couldn't seem to understand his teammates. It was like they were from an entirely different world. None of them seemed to love to play as much as he did; tried as hard as he did. It was frustrating. He’d jog to school in the mornings and get there forty five minutes early just to practice a little extra on his own outside while he waited for the gym doors to be unlocked. He stayed latest after school to get pointers from the coach or willing upperclassmen and then practiced them on his own until he got kicked out of the gym after dark. When he wasn’t practicing, he was reading about volleyball or watching volleyball. Volleyball was like air to him. He absorbed everything he could like a sponge. 

With all his added effort, Kageyama unsurprisingly started improving at a much faster rate than his peers. By the end of first year, he was in the starting lineup. Often, he would hear his teammates whisper about being jealous or how he was a genius. As time went on, their whispers seemed to turn to bitter excuses as to why they wouldn’t ever be as good. 

He wasn’t a genius. He just put the necessary time and effort into practicing that his precious volleyball deserved. The other boys would complain about practice being too hard or wanting to go on a date with a girl from one class over on the weekend and yet they wondered why they weren’t as good. It was disgusting. He couldn’t relate to those people at all and Kageyama started to drift from his teammates. It felt like he was getting held back by these lazy, sorry excuse for teammates. 

So Kageyama got fed up with the snide comments made behind his back about his “genius skill” and the “stick up his ass” and started pushing back. Letting out his frustration at his teammates hoping it would push them to try harder and improve. He would tell them what they needed to do to catch up with him since they all seemed to want to so badly. He didn't need anything but volleyball so neither should they. If he just pushed hard enough they would see and finally understand. It wasn’t about natural skill. It was about the effort and dedication you gave the sport. 

Kageyama’s teammates didn’t get it, though, and the more he pushed the more they pushed back. In no time at all he’d become the “King” and his teammates were lazier than ever. Eventually they stopped caring altogether and just up and abandoned him on the court. It was the ultimate humiliation. The people he’d thought would have his back turned out to not be on his side at all. 

Kageyama didn’t leave his room the rest of the weekend after that match. The sheer force of his pride alone allowed him to go to school that Monday. Suddenly he wasn’t so impervious to his supposed teammate’s comments and he heard every little thing they said. He went to practice like always, not letting fear get in the way of his ultimate goals. Kageyama was ignored by those that bothered to show up outside of the whispered comments made behind his back. The coach talked to him when prompted mostly out of pity and he could tell the man wasn’t on his side either. Nobody was called out for their behavior in the match and nothing was done about the behavior during practice. Kageyama was sick of it all. If only he could play volleyball alone. He’d been painfully shown that he’d never be able to rely on his teammates. He wasn’t going to trust anyone ever again. 

He decided he didn’t want to go to high school with any of his classmates and started looking into other options. His first choice school didn’t want him and he didn’t pass the entrance exams. Same thing with his second choice. That was fine. It didn’t matter what school he went to, so long as there was a decent coach and his teammates stayed out of his way long enough for him to make them win. No more distractions. He just wanted to play. After high school he would go pro and finally meet like-minded people who could keep up with him. Just three more years. He could wait. He would show everybody how his hard work paid off in the end. 

So Kageyama settled on some obscure school with it’s glory days long gone and a rumor that a skilled coach would be coming out of retirement to help improve the team. That was perfect. He’d show everyone. No matter what, he would become number one.

**Author's Note:**

> And just think. After all that pissing and moaning Kageyama ends up eating his words and becoming a team player. Hah. He really just needed to work on his people skills.


End file.
